Home Grown Collective - Third time's the charm

Today I'm talking with Hayden at the Home Grown Collective. You can follow on Facebook as well.

A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Homegrowncollective.org.

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00:00
You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free-to-use farm-to-table platform emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe.

00:29
Share it with a friend or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Hayden from Homegrown Collective for the third time. Hi Hayden, how are you? Great Mary, I hope you are. I'm good. It's a really beautiful day here in Minnesota. The sun is shining and it's cold. It's like, I don't think it's above freezing yet. Oh man, I got nice 67 degree weather down here in North Carolina. Well, yeah, because you're in the south and I'm in the north. So go fig.

00:58
Spring so far has been pretty good, so we're really looking forward to the temperatures keeping climbing here. it really is.  I'm ready. I'm ready for it to be May 15th so we can start planting plants.  Okay, so just to catch people up, Hayden and I have talked a couple times already.  Hayden has the most wonderful directory for people who want to get found if they sell stuff. And by stuff I mean produce or...

01:28
Homegrown meats or  I don't know what else but Hayden's gonna tell you so Hayden. Tell me more. Tell me where you're at. What's going on? So we created a it's it's it's a what a directory an online store and it's a hub with tools for  producers and consumers to organize a local  Supported food system in their communities so you can create educational groups. You can create barter groups you can

01:58
share which  which farmers markets you're going to be at if you want to if you don't want to sell online and you want to keep everything local.  The point of the online market is to give those smaller  producers access to that revenue. And you're still supporting you know, local and when I say a local food producer,  mean somebody who  grows their own food,  and most of it goes back to a 50 mile radius of consumers.

02:26
is what I consider a local food producer.  people ask,  where are you located? And it's not about where our company is located. It's about where they're located and who they can find that has the same mindset. So our Homegrown Collective isn't just a collective of people selling food. It's a collective mindset of people who want a different food system in America. And it gives you the tools to help organize that.

02:54
all in one place and  you're able to support and organize  local food production and offerings  with restaurants, household consumers,  backyard gardeners, to small family farms. And it brings everybody with that same goal in mind for our food system  together in one place.  You could compare it to like a Facebook with a good cause and our

03:23
Our thought was with the revenue that social media brings in, you could really make some real change in a country with that kind of revenue. And if we can do it under a nonprofit business model and get that money back directly to the responsible food producers and grow new  operations of  food production, then  by directly funding those efforts,  I think we can change the food system in our country.  Probably communities out of time, but it can be done.

03:54
Very nice. And I'm really excited to hear that the Homegrown Collective  model has grown since we last talked. Yeah, absolutely. I thought it was just going to be a directory, but it sounds like  it's much more than that this time. So that's great.  Before we continue,  it's national, right? It's not just... Yeah, international. You can  access it anywhere in the United States.  We can't operate outside of the United States based on our...

04:23
a nonprofit status,  you can't  take in funds and direct them outside of the country, which I totally understand  and wouldn't want to do anyways. we are  steadily growing and I know it'll be a long,  with all the information being pushed out onto people, it's kind of hard to get it out there. So we really appreciate everything you do for us, Mary.

04:50
Well, I am a huge proponent for what you're doing because I have been saying on every episode for the last two weeks, I think if you live in America right now, find your local growers because it's really important. It's always been important, but it's even more important now. I agree. I agree. And we are, our board members are growing. So we got a new lady in, uh, in Georgia that's come on and a man in New Hampshire. we're our board.

05:20
of advisors is growing outside of North Carolina and Virginia. And so  we're getting more and more knowledge and taking in more and more  data. So as we grow, our board members will provide us with more information and help us maintain the  right direction. And sometimes we're just not knowledgeable about the area and the ecosystem of other places. So it's better to have  local knowledge.

05:50
helping us direct funds and get everybody on board.  Yeah, absolutely.  Knowing people who know things you don't know is really, really important.  And  I've said this before, I'm going to say it again. When I  make friends, I just hope that they're smarter than I am because I want to learn from them. And so basically you're making business friends who know more than you do. Right. That's exactly what I'm doing. You are right.

06:20
And I think it'll, it'll add to our, uh, you know, people will hopefully trust it more if they know that there are people involved in their state, you know, across, uh, not just one man show, but, uh, so we're, as we grow, I hope we, uh, you know, gain more people's confidence. Yeah. And I don't see why you wouldn't. I mean, you seem very genuine. You seem very passionate about this, which I love. And

06:46
And on that note, how excited are you that you just started this? a year and a half ago?  we'll developing started  three, two or three years ago, but we fully launched  within this year. So yeah, we, it's really exciting. I  know marketing, it's fun talking and making all the connections on the way there, but  I'll get excited when it's a household name and everybody knows how to buy, you know, the best place to buy their local.

07:15
local grown food. Yeah, yes, I understand that. But you have been, this is your baby. This is this was your idea, right? Well, I'm the goal. No, no, I think this idea had been has I think others have had this idea. I think I organized it and put the best business model behind it to create real change. But I want to still I don't want to take everybody I think kind of has that idea of, you know, it's better to buy local and

07:44
And I hopefully, and you people have created their own tools for it and stuff, but I've looked at all those and I really feel like we got  the best way to create change in our country, not just  create a successful business. So I'm hoping  one day when I find somebody more knowledgeable who  is driven like I am to be  in the head of operations, I think it'll show people how committed I am.

08:12
that when I stepped down to be the head of support is that my goal is to deal directly with the users and  directly work with the platform's development. And I would like somebody with more experience to be the head of operations for the nonprofit. And I think once people see that I'm willing to hand off recognition and control that they'll realize how serious I am about getting the goals met. Yeah. Well, while you're the head of

08:41
of everything basically.  I'm really impressed with you Hayden. You  did not have to do this. This was something that you felt called to do. And so I say this to everybody I'm genuinely proud of because I'm a mom and I'm always saying to my kids I'm proud of them.  I'm really proud of you. This took a lot  to get off the ground and get as far as you have. Yeah. Well I've been flying dark so I'm learning on the way.

09:10
but definitely out of my comfort zone.  Yeah, kind of like I was when I started the podcast.  Yeah, baby, very comparable. Yep. And the podcast is doing really well and it sounds like  Homegrown Collective is doing really well. So I guess we're on the right track.  And before I say anything else, I want to make it clear that the Homegrown Collective is the only sponsor.

09:35
of a tiny homestead podcast right now. So thank you Hayden. I appreciate that. Yes. We were very happy to do it. I, uh, I like the people that follow your podcast and I've looked through your profiles and seeing you got the, you got good kind of people listening to you. So  I'm thankful for every single listener I have because without them,  I wouldn't be doing this. So, but just thank you so much for sponsoring the podcast. I appreciate it.  Okay. So you were telling me that

10:04
that you wanted to clarify how people can use Homegrown Collective or by computer or by their own. Right, so  it's a platform just like Facebook or Instagram or something.  So if you're using the computer, you'll go on the web app and use it through the website. And if you're accessing it through your cell phone, then you'll just download the app on your phone and access it through that way. But we've had some people logging on.

10:33
on their cell phone to the website.  that can just,  creates a, it's not the best user  experience. It's just not designed to be used on a cell phone and the mobile app's not designed to be used on a computer. Okay. But so it's, it's a, think people find it, figure it out, but we, that is the biggest confusion we have so far. And I think maybe the people keep asking,  you know, where are you located?

11:02
We're located in North Carolina in America and our platform is available all throughout the US. So it tracks your location. It's local to your location, not local to us.  Yep.  And when people want to go find the app for their smartphone, what do they  type in? it just homegrown collective  app? Right in their app store. Okay. All right. Cool. Because sometimes

11:31
sometimes you look for an app and you're like, I don't know if it's under the name or if it's under something else. So yeah, yeah. So yeah, there is, there's  just a little bit of confusion, but we don't, we're getting mostly good feedback from people that get on and start using it.  So  we got a new updates coming too. So there'll be a  CSA tool and a delivery tool added.  And for those that are able to,

11:59
have a producer profile and a consumer profile, they'll be able to switch between those easier than logging off and logging back on. we've had, we've gotten a lot of feedback from  some loyal users and we really appreciate it. And those changes will be made as soon as possible.  Nice. You,  I don't want you to like spill all your secrets about this, but who does all your, your  computer and app stuff?

12:27
It's a company that most of their, they all work remote, but most of them want the lady that was it's a  app company, a software company. And they, their name is band of coders, but they, uh,  uh, they were my second company I used. had some issues with the first one, but, uh,  I found a good team. I think they're good guys.  Uh, they really liked what I'm doing, but, uh, and the,  the, lady that I spoke to directly was in Georgia. So she was right. One stayed over from me.

12:57
I know that's not local or anything, but it just, it made it nice to know that there was somebody on my time zone that I could talk to during development. Yeah. Okay.  It just seems like, it just seems like all the pieces have really been coming together for this. amazing. There's been some things that I wasn't expecting to happen that really, really pushed us forward a little bit when I needed it the most.  And so this, I know it's going to be a slow, slow long road, but I'm in it for the long haul and I'm excited.

13:27
Yeah. Yeah. I think you would sound more excited if you weren't just getting over a bug. So  yeah, that's right. I'm  drained of a little drained of energy, but uh, I, uh, I'm either going to have to be excited for several years or wait till, uh, or wait till we can get to enough cell phones and enough people  wanting the same change that we want for the, for the food system. And, uh, I'm sure there, we just, it's just a matter of getting the word out. Yeah, it is. Um,

13:57
Okay. So for people to, to be listed on Homegrown Collective, it's free. that correct? Yeah. anybody, any producer or supporting business, any services can list their, their offerings on the website for free. We do go through an approval where we make sure they're an actual business or, you know, who they say they are, you know, very brief 24 hour.

14:25
We just check out your information and see if you're who you set, you know, your business is where and what it is. And then once you're approved, you're good to, you're good to sell and operate using the tools. Okay.  Trust, but verify is what you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we just don't, can't have like if you have all the other social medias have bots and, you know, stuff that are being put on there to influence how many followers people have or

14:55
stuff like that. I  don't want it to get as messy  and diluted as Facebook and Instagram.  You know, I want it to be goal driven,  you know, with a purpose in mind.  hopefully, hopefully we can keep only, you know,  noble operators on there. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.  So do you have any idea how many members you have right now? Yeah, we got close to 200 falls across the country.

15:25
There's thousands of consumers that have logged on. You  got some producers logging on in some areas that no consumers have logged on and some consumers log on in areas where no producers have logged on yet.  And so  there's a few communities that have gotten it to where they're set up and using it. And  the biggest thing is the producers were offering a free resource and we hope that they'll promote our  services.

15:54
the way that we promote  their business on our platform. And so by benefiting each other and  getting everybody on one organized hub for this mission,  I think if we all work together,  my only goal is to end up with a remote salary. So I'm not looking to become a Martin Zuckerberg or anything, but it would be nice to have  one place with one voice speaking for our food.

16:23
that isn't  funded by  big corporations or government. Yes. Yep. That makes sense. Okay. So you said you had some notes you wrote down that you wanted to touch on. Have you hit all of them or do you have more?  Just to know, got to be, our goals are the same. We're growing our board members. If anybody would like to apply, you can, there's a form on the website.  We got some events we're attending this year. We'll be at the North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee state fair.

16:53
We'll be at the Homesteaders of America convention  this week. Tomorrow I'll be at the small week, small farm week here in North Carolina. And so we're going on a couple more podcasts this year and we'll be in Progressive Farmer magazine,  the Farm and Ranch magazine. And  so we're getting, we're just hoping to gain exposure and gain as many producers as possible to help us.

17:25
share our information and hopefully people will schedule phone calls with me if they're skeptical. You can do that through my email support at homegrowncollective.org. I'd love to clear up any confusion for  any users. So. Nice. Okay.  And  I'm,  is a weird question because I'm not sure you're there yet, but have you gotten feedback from people who are using the.  Yeah, that's where some of our, uh,

17:54
The biggest thing was,  you know, make it easier to sign up. we made it so we're working on getting it so it auto populates like every, whenever you go to any other website, can like auto populate your information from your Google wallet or  somebody. So to get people signed up to their information, we're making it auto populate  from their information.  The other thing that people brought up the most was the, was being, they were like, I want to be a consumer too and a producer.

18:22
And so we're making it easier to switch back and forth between those profiles. And that's really the only  negative feedback I've gotten besides somebody saying,  there's no producers in our, in our area yet. And I just have to kindly explain relaunched this year. Uh, we are still spreading. If you could just help us spread the word, maybe share a post in your community,  uh, or you can  send anybody, if you can ask anybody's permission to send me their contact information.

18:51
and I'll happily reach out to them myself.  So that we are at the place where we are getting users and starting to get feedback. And I'm trying to go ahead and get ahead of it and make any changes I can now instead of letting them all build  up. I just spoke with the developers at Band of Coders last Friday, it was Friday right before the weekend started and talked to them about the new updates and.

19:20
what we see coming this year. Nice. I feel like it's like building a library, Hayden.  You're building a library of people who are producing good food. And  once the library hits a certain point, people will be like, oh yeah, I know where to go. I need to go to Homegrown Collective because  that's the library of producers I need to look in to find what I need.

19:50
Yeah, I love that metaphor. hadn't thought about it like that, but that's, it is a hub of resources and information. And I guess there's like a snack bar in this library too. So. exactly.  Wouldn't it, wouldn't it have been great if a library's had little coffee shops in them back when you were a kid? Well, I go to Barnes and Nobles a lot. So I,  when they started putting Starbucks in there, they, somebody, somebody up in that corporate office had a great idea.

20:21
Apparently, our Barnes and Nobles has a huge Starbucks in it in Greenville, North Carolina. it, for as long as I can remember, they had something in there. I guess not the public libraries. They should have maybe handed out some food. Yeah, that would have been really cool. I spent a lot of time in the library from the time I was 12 till I was 18. So I would have been happy to drop pocket money at the library. That would have been fine.

20:49
The first chocolate covered cherry mocha I ever had was at the first Barnes and Noble that I went to that had a coffee shop in it. And I have  not been able to find a chocolate covered cherry mocha anywhere since. And I've tried to replicate it and I came close, but it wasn't the same. That does sound delicious. It really was. I was like, Oh my God, I need to get the ingredients and make this myself. And I tried. I really tried, but you know,

21:17
You know, you can't make the thing the same as at the place you got it. It's just never going to live up to it or the memory. No, no. Next, but not the first time.  Nope. So,  um, so you were saying back when we talked last time that you really aren't a grower, a producer. So I started,  I have started growing my own food this last two years. I tomatoes, okra and corn.  Awesome.

21:44
Good. Cause you were- my favorite side. So I try to grow enough to  freeze.  you know, I try to, it would be nice to one day be able, I don't have the room for it now, but I'm,  I'm at the point  of finding  some,  if I can find a little bit of land that I could, you know, put a, put  like a double wide on or, or a RV on or something so I can grow my own food, uh, and have my own little property. I'm a-

22:14
I'm looking to set up to be able to grow for the rest of my life.  I gotta find the right property to do that if, if, uh, if it comes to pass in the near future.  so yeah, we got a little homegrown collective garden. do herbs.  got rose. I got all the herbs you can think of. And then I got, uh, I do potatoes, ochre and corn throughout the year and try to freeze as much as I can.  Cause I swear when we talked the first time.

22:42
You were saying that you were no expert and that you were trying to grow some things  and you really wanted to get into  it. still a novice, but that was one reason to start something like this and not just make it an online market is because I was a consumer that caught on to how food processing industry and how that is going for our country. And so I really, really wanted to start growing my own food, but didn't have the knowledge to do it. And so I was like, well,

23:11
some, want to buy my own food and I want to learn how to grow it. is there any, and there wasn't a resource for all of that,  uh, with the set with one goal to, and I couldn't find it anywhere to buy food and learn,  uh, in the same place. hopefully,  hopefully this tool will help me buy  local food and, and, uh, learn how to grow it as well.  Yep.  Exactly. You have, was, that was  one big reason why I started it.

23:39
Yeah, I hate to keep relating this back to books, but basically you've written the book you wanted to read. So we're back to libraries and books. Yeah, no, I've got a whole list of books that I've read this last two years to help me prepare.  And so I haven't written a book. Did you say I wrote a book?  No, no, no. I'm making the analogy that you have written the book that you wanted to  we are still writing it. We are still writing it. So there will.

24:08
There'll be some new chapters coming for sure. Yeah. mean, since we last talked, there's new chapters that I didn't even know were going on. So  it's, really exciting.  Um, last time you and I had talked, I think that I had told you that we'd gotten a grant to build a hard-sided greenhouse. think I told you.  must have forgotten about that, but that's awesome. I'm what  are you planning on growing? Uh-huh. We're already growing stuff in it. It went up in May. Okay. Last May.

24:38
So almost a year ago.  And the first year is the experiment because we live in Minnesota. It's cold, you know, six months out of the year  and it extended our growing season by two months. So instead of the garden, anything growing past September or October, we're now in December, which has been amazing.  And,  um, my husband put the first seeds in a month ago out there for cold, hardy stuff.

25:05
And he just moved some of our peppers and tomato plants, seedlings out there this weekend. So  basically the only months we can't really grow anything out there is January and February. That's awesome.  If you can do it in Minnesota, means, mean, you should have, my goal is to have  a, a greenhouse too, one day, maybe you'll know enough by the time I get my greenhouse to teach me something.

25:33
Well, you're lucky because you live in a much warmer climate than I do.  he put a space heater out there this weekend because it was going to get cold overnight last night. And  most of the plants that aren't cold hardy, that aren't winter growing plants, as it were, they're up high. So the heat rises. So it stayed above 40 degrees last night in the greenhouse. Gotcha. Yeah.  I got a book that I'm learning.

26:03
the different techniques of growing. I'll pick which one I think I'll be most capable of.  Yep. We've tried.  We've done so much research Hayden on how to heat this thing for the whole winter so that we could actually grow tomatoes in there in January.  It's not going to happen. So I saw one thing you like dig, I don't know if y'all would want to do this, but you dig down like three feet and the warmer ground.

26:31
You you dig past the cold frozen ground. frost line, yeah. The frost line and then you build your greenhouse around that and all the heat that's not getting trapped by the frozen ground grows, is trapped in the greenhouse from the earth. Yeah, we had talked about that and it's a 40 foot by 20 foot greenhouse. Oh, yeah. And we don't have a bobcat to dig.

26:56
and  we didn't have the money to get somebody to come dig it out for us. So, And you saw one technique too that you can just drill, instead of like excavating it all out, you can drill holes every, you know, certain amount of feet and get those down past the frost line and those let up enough heat  to thaw out the frosted surface too. So you would just need, you would just need like a, like a one hole digger.

27:25
to go straight down and then you cover it with like a, you know, put like a PVC pipe down there and then I've been learning a lot of techniques to do stuff like that. it would take some work and 40 by 20 is quite a bit of square footage there, but that's an awesome sized greenhouse, I bet. Yeah. My husband and son actually built it themselves. They had a little bit of help from one of our friends and

27:50
The day it was finished, I went outside and I went inside of it and I was just like, this is freaking amazing. Good job, you guys. And my husband was like, well, you're the one that applied for the grant and got the money for us to be able to build it. So without you, it wouldn't be here. And I just thought that was so sweet that they'd done all the grunt work and all I did was answer a couple of questions. Hey, that sometimes that's how it works when you're ahead of the podcast. Yup, exactly.

28:20
So anyway,  I would say what's the future for Homegrown Collective, but I think you've actually told me the answer to that already. We're just trying to spread to as many communities  in America as we can and get as many supporting users as possible. It's free and easy. You can delete your account at any time.  So I hope they'll at least give it a chance. We're not here to scam anybody.  Yeah, and scams are a big thing right now.

28:49
I'm going to vouch for Hayden. I mean, it's my podcast and  he clearly... would love to speak with anybody. I will get on the phone with anybody. And if it's possible, meet him in person  if there's any skepticism. Yes. And the other thing I would say is Hayden's right. Always do your research. If you have questions, make sure you ask them.

29:14
I agree. That's the best thing you can do. Hopefully we can start doing that with local farmers. Yeah. Yep. Exactly.  Have you been able, have you had time to go visit anybody local to you? Oh gosh. Yeah. I spend all my time every day. Like when I go out shopping every week, I go to, you know, a different local market. got one called Acre Station. That's a local meat  farm and butcher shop. And they got, they got a stand for local produce. So I go there a lot. then

29:43
Griffin's Farm Market. go to the local, I go there and then I go to a farmers markets all over North Carolina. So I got friends in the mountains in Raleigh. And so I go and I do in-person stuff and go meet, you know, hand out cards at farmers markets.  it's a, that is honestly the most effective way. But when I look at my funds and how many people I reach when I drive that far to go do that.

30:11
It makes more sense for me to reach like a podcast  or a magazine and they reach, you know, a hundred thousand people in the magazine or, or whatever, whatever they're, I can reach more people by marketing like that. But when I do get the opportunity to go to farmer's market, I always shop there once I had a new one once a week or different one once a week. So I, uh,  it's really easy to do it when you, when you eat the way that you're trying to get other people to eat and promote this, then it's.

30:41
I'm really just shopping for my food and working a little bit at the same time. So it's not, it's very easy to do. Nice. You're just, you're so personable that I can't imagine that somebody is like, why are you talking to me? You sometimes people have their walls up, it takes, yeah, I do get that. I do get that look on their face a lot. Like, why did he just come up to me and start talking? But, uh, I can really, I could talk to a wall if, uh, that was the only thing they're listening. So, yeah.

31:11
All right, Hayden, we're at 30 minutes. I'm going to cut you loose. Thank you so much for coming back. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. And thank you for letting us sponsor and reach your users.  Oh, absolutely. I appreciate it. Bye. Bye.